Las Plumas of Oroville coaches and players didn’t just win a CIF NorCal regional title last Saturday. The Thunderbirds also wrapped up a 31-1-1 season and will go down as the D3 State Team of Year. Photo: lasplumasthunderbirds.com.
State Team of the Year honors for the 2026 softball season also are going out this week for the four other CIF based playoff divisions. We have done teams of the year in five divisions for many years and these mythical honors considered all teams that played in CIF section playoffs (including those that opted out of the regionals). One of these five teams is a repeater from last season. Last year’s runner-up in D1 also is a team of the year this season for D2.
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Congratulations to these five softball teams for being added to the list of all-time state teams of the year according to our traditional Cal-Hi Sports five-division format:
Division I
Destiny Christian (Sacramento)
This year’s State Team of the Year selection for Destiny Christian also is the first ever No. 1 finish in any sport for the Lions in their school’s history. This includes all of the years when the school was known as Capital Christian of Sacramento. This is only the second full school year that the Destiny Christian name is being used instead of the former name. Athletic director Aaron Garcia is the former football quarterback star at Grant High in Sacramento and professionally for arena football. It was fun catching up with him at last week’s games as well.
Division II
Del Oro (Loomis)
The final week of the season in the regional playoffs can give teams one last chance to do something special and a great example of that is the Golden Eagles.
Last year’s CIF NorCal D1 champions had some tough losses early in the season (head coach Sean Erickson took the team down to the Michelle Carew Classic in Southern California) mixed in with some good wins. The girls didn’t win in their league, and fell short in the CIF Sac-Joaquin Section D2 final to Elk Grove.
When the CIF put out its pairings for the regionals, however, Del Oro was in D2 with Elk Grove in D1. There were some higher ranked teams in D2, but when the final week ended it was the Golden Eagles that were celebrating and now they also get to add a state team of year honor to the resume. As a D1 school last year, they won the NorCal title but weren’t a state team of the year. CIF Southern Section D1 champ Norco (opted out of the regionals) was No. 1 in the state with Del Oro at No. 2.
After opening the NorCal D2 playoffs, the Golden Eagles took on a Willow Glen of San Jose team that had an upset win over St. Francis of Mountain View in the CCS D1 semifinals. They rolled to a 6-0 win as Chloe Champas went 2-for-3 with three RBI and freshman Katherine Popovski pitched a three-hitter.
Despite playing at top seed Alameda in the final and missing some key starters who checked out of the team for travel ball duties, Del Oro still looked like an elite squad with a 5-0 win over the Hornets. The home team did have its ace, Julia Lambert, but Popovski not only matched her but got two RBI singles in the contest. She finished with a two-hitter, struck out six and walked two. Champas also had another big hit with a two-run single.
Del Oro, which finished with 10 wins in its last 11 games and was 23-8 overall, has been a state team of the year in softball before. That came in 1994 in D3 when the team won a Sac-Joaquin Section title and ended with a 24-5-1 record.
The SoCal D2 champion, Riverside Prep, ended with a 29-4 record (not counting forfeits). They were rewarded the regional title after Great Oak of Temecula was unable to find enough players due to players that it was using then left for their travel ball teams. Great Oak therefore had to forfeit. Del Oro has been a higher ranked team all season and its wins over Willow Glen and Alameda were another big difference compared to Riverside Prep.
Freshman Katherine Popovski pitched like a seasoned veteran for Del Oro in its three wins last week in the CIF NorCal D2 playoffs. Photo: Jordan Georgeson / Gold Country Media.
Division III
Las Plumas (Oroville)
This division in the NorCal playoffs turned in a party for the CIF Northern Section. The Thunderbirds had to get past East Nicolaus of Nicolaus in the semifinals in a highly anticipated showdown of Northern Section championship teams — one that was 29-1-1 overall and the other that was 26-1 — but once they did that there was a familiar foe waiting for them in the title game. That was Chico. The Panthers had stamped their spot in the regional final with a win over top-seed Monterey in the semifinals.
Chico is a squad that Las Plumas barely got past, 13-12, in the D2 section playoffs. It wasn’t the same type of game in last Saturday’s regional final. Jayse Long came through with an RBI single in the bottom of the first inning for a 1-0 lead, there were two more runs in the fourth inning and pitcher Kyler Storey wound up with a complete game for a 4-1 victory.
The win over East Nicolaus was much more dramatic. A home run and double by sophomore Reagan Johnson helped Las Plumas get out to a 6-2 leading going into the sixth inning. But the Spartans rallied with four runs in the top of sixth and the two teams were tied 6-6 going to extra innings. Long then won it for the Thunderbirds with a walk off RBI single in the bottom of the eighth.
Las Plumas wrapped up a 31-1-1 season. This is the school’s first-ever state team of the year honor in softball.
If there had been a CIF D3 state final (will start next year), the opponent for the Thunderbirds this season would have been Hanford West of Hanford of the Central Section. The Huskies won their regional title with an 8-4 win over Helix of La Mesa and traveled all the way down to San Diego County for the contest. With a final record of 20-14, selecting Las Plumas higher is easy. Anything could have happened, though, if there had been a game to decide it.
Division IV
Woodlake
Despite losing a dominant senior pitcher in Audrina Rodriguez who didn’t lose a game last season, the Woodlake High softball team found a way to repeat as CIF SoCal D4 regional champions and now the Tigers also are repeating as a state team of the year.
We thought that Woodlake should have been seeded No. 1 in the SoCal bracket with a 28-4 record compared to San Diego Madison that was 22-9-1. The Tigers were seeded second, but they were able to host last Saturday’s regional final since Madison lost to Grossmont of La Mesa in the other semifinal, 15-3. Woodlake, which had to win its regional title on the road last year, then used the hot valley heat to its advantage with a 14-4 mercy rule win over Grossmont.
Woodlake trailed 2-0 and 4-2, but grabbed a 6-4 lead in the bottom of the fourth inning on three-run double with the based loaded by Ella Lara. In the bottom of the fifth, the Tigers piled on with a stolen base of home, a passed ball, an RBI single by Mareli Zamora and multiple walks for a 12-4 lead. Mia Aldana then ended the game with a two-run single for a 14-4 win in five innings.
“We’ve seen it over the years … I do think it wears on you,” head coach Ramon Lara said to the Sun-Gazette newspaper. “It’s a little different where you leave home and it’s 65 degrees and you come out here and it’s 95 degrees. It’s a part of playing at home and we’ll take it.”
In addition to the two straight SoCal regional titles, Woodlake also has won three straight Central Section titles and has posted a combined 90 wins. Last year’s team was the first in school history to end with a No. 1 state ranking in any division. This year’s team will be the second.
The CIF NorCal D4 champion was Escalon, which defeated Alisal of Salinas, 4-2, in its title game. The Cougars (18-11) also denied Alisal its chance to finish No. 1 in the state for this division as we had placed the Trojans at No. 1 earlier in the week with Woodlake at No. 3. West Valley of Cottonwood (No. 2) was eliminated in the regional semifinals by forfeit as one of its players played for her travel ball team while still on the high school team.
Le Grand High softball coaches and players have notched a mythical D5 state title along with the regional title they won on the field last Saturday. Photo: cifstate / Instagram.com.
Division V
Le Grand
The CIF Sac-Joaquin Section makes it three out of five No. 1 teams in the state this year for softball as the Bulldogs are getting the honor for D5. They’re joining Destiny Christian for D1 and Del Oro of Loomis for D2.
Le Grand started the NorCal regional playoffs in D5 as the No. 2 seed behind Notre Dame of Belmont at No. 1. Notre Dame had a bye in the first round, but then lost to Moreau Catholic of Hayward in the semifinals, 7-3. The Bulldogs won in their semifinal matchup, 5-1, over Durham and then beat Moreau Catholic last Saturday in the title game, 5-3.
Ava Avila has been Le Grand’s star player all season and she had another huge outing vs Moreau. With her team trailing 3-2 in the bottom of the fifth inning, Avila smashed a deep drive over the fence for a two-run homer and a 4-3 lead. She didn’t give up a run in the top of the sixth, then there was an RBI double in sixth. In the top of the seventh, Avila posted a 1-2-3 inning with a strikeout to end the game.
Le Grand (21-7) has been named as a state team of the year in softball for the second time. The only other year the Bulldogs have done that was in 1985 with a 17-2 record.
Avila pitched two-hitters in Le Grand’s other two regional wins vs Justin-Siena of Napa (10-0) and Durham (5-1). She also had two homers in the 10-0 win.
The CIF SoCal D5 champion is San Bernardino (19-15-1). The Cardinals played Arroyo Valley of San Bernardino last Saturday for the regional title, which was a rematch of the CIFSS D8 title that the Hawks won, 8-5. This time, the roles reversed in a 11-9 win for San Berdoo.
Mark Tennis is the co-founder and publisher of CalHiSports.com. He can be reached at markjtennis@gmail.com. Don’t forget to follow Mark on the Cal-Hi Sports Twitter handle: @CalHiSports
